The Fredericksburg Nationals stayed hot last week, taking four of six against Charleston to close out their homestand with 10 wins in 13 games across the last two weeks. The team has won 14 of its last 17 games to climb out of the cellar and shoot up the standings.
The FredNats (27-28) are now alone in third place in the Carolina League’s North Division, three games behind the Mudcats (30-25) for second and seven back of first-place Down East (33-20).
Now the Freddies will take their show on the road for the next two weeks, and will be facing the top two teams out of the South Division — first-place Myrtle Beach (34-23) this week and second-place Columbia (32-25) next week. The Freddies are 6-11 (.353) against teams with a winning record this season, and they’ll be without one of their top performers moving forward.
Prior to Friday’s game against the RiverDogs, Fredericksburg third baseman Brady House, the Nationals’ No. 5 prospect, was promoted to High-A Wilmington. In his 36 games with the Freddies this season, House averaged .297 with 41 hits, 8 doubles, 5 stolen bases, 22 RBI and a team-leading 6 home runs. In his first game as a member of the Blue Rocks on Saturday, House went 2-for-5 with a double and scored a run as he takes his next step toward his dream of playing in the majors.
He joins former Fredericksburg teammate Jake Bennett (No. 9) in Wilmington, who struck out 8 Greensboro batters and allowed a run on three hits across five innings in his Blue Rocks debut last Tuesday.
Elijah Green (No. 3) registered just two hits across 15 at-bats in his five games against Charleston last week, but drew three walks and only struck out four times, which is a good sign that the fifth pick in last year’s draft is starting to see things a little better at the plate. Green has been sat down 83 times this season in 175 at-bats.
Jarlin Susana (No. 6) gave up a pair of runs on 5 hits to go with 3 strikeouts and 2 walks in 4.0 innings on Saturday. The talented, 6-foot-6 right-hander did not factor into the decision, and remains 0-3 on the season in nine starts with a 3.69 ERA and 35 strikeouts (31.2 innings).
Shortstop Armando Cruz (No. 13) got his batting average back north of the .200 mark after collecting hits in three of his four contests last week. Cruz, who signed with the organization out of the Dominican Republic for $3.9 million the day before he turned 17 in January of 2021, is batting .201 on the year, his first full season at the Single-A level.
Left fielder Daylen Lile (No. 15) smoked an opposite-field, three-run homer — his fourth of the season — and then added an RBI single in the seventh during Thursday’s win. The four RBI were a career high for the 2021 second-round selection (47th overall), who is batting .271 with 45 hits, 32 RBI and 16 stolen bases.
First baseman Roismar Quintana (No. 16) drove in the game-deciding run in last Tuesday’s series opener against the RiverDogs with a double off the left-field wall that scored Cortland Lawson from second. In 31 games in 2023, the 20-year-old is hitting at a .220 clip.
On Thursday, outfielder Brenner Cox (No. 22) was assigned to the Florida Complex League rookie-level team. Cox, a 19-year-old, fourth-round pick a year ago, was batting just .139 (16-for-115) on the season in 35 games, and the Nationals decided that a demotion was in order. In his first game with his new squad on Saturday, Cox went 2-for-4 with a double and a couple of runs driven in, so maybe he can find some improvement at the plate during his stay in the Sunshine State.
The Pelicans are the hottest team in the league entering Tuesday’s contest, having won nine of their last 10 games and 15 of their last 18. They’re the Single-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs.
Myrtle Beach has won each of its last three series — against Fayetteville (6-0), Salem (4-2) and Augusta (5-1) — after dropping its previous three against Columbia (4-2), Lynchburg (4-2) and Augusta (4-3).
Right-hander Jackson Ferris (0-0, 2.87 ERA) is the Cubs’ top prospect on the Myrtle Beach roster (No. 8), but hasn’t gone past three innings of work in his six starts this season. Cristian Hernandez (No. 9), a talented, 19-year-old shortstop with loads of potential, is a .238 hitter who has drawn comparisons to Manny Machado and Alex Rodriguez in terms of his build and physicality.
Catcher Moises Ballesteros (No. 19) has hit 7 home runs and is batting .264 this season, while switch-hitting infielder Pedro Ramirez (No. 21), another international bonus-pool prospect from the 2021 class, is hitting .242 on the year.
Nazier Mule (No. 25) is an 18-year-old, fourth-round pitcher who turned down a scholarship offer to Miami but has yet to make his professional debut after undergoing Tommy John surgery in March, and will have to wait until next season.
Offensively, Myrtle Beach leads the Carolina League in hits (465), batting average (.251), slugging percentage (.374) and OPS (.703), and are third with 42 home runs, while the Pelicans’ pitchers have allowed a league-low 18 homers and lead the league in strikeouts with 602.
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